Shipping Container

Using old shipping containers is seen as an environmentally friendly means of constructing new homes. Taking this one step further, Sustainer Homes has begun making off-grid container dwellings that incorporate self-managed water, sewerage, electricity and gas.

The lateral leap of shipping containers from goods movers to ready-made housing, offices, and restaurants has opened up new possibilities for architects, event planners, and relief workers. But the very standard sizes that make such containers so useful also impose limits. Having developed containers that can load and unload themselves, Excalibur Shelters has continued to think outside the box with the creation of a standard size shipping container that unfolds into very large shelters and pavilions.

There was a time when shipping containers were just used for cargo, but these days, they're used for everything from housing to restaurants and urban farms. While these steel boxes have proven to be extremely versatile, they're also very expensive to move and require some heavy lifting. Excalibur Shelters is making this a bit cheaper and simpler with SL-Tainer, a self-lifting container that does away with the need for a crane to get it on and off the back of a truck.

Copenhagen's Arcgency recently completed a shipping container-based office that plays to the container's strengths as a construction material and addresses its weaknesses. Dubbed Made to be Moved, the recyclable building takes the chilly Scandinavian climate in its stride, and is designed to be easily dismantled when the time comes to move it to another location.

A new restaurant due to open in the US is claimed to be the largest in the country to be built using shipping containers. The Smoky Park Supper Club in Asheville, North Carolina, is constructed from 19 containers and was built by shipping container construction firm SG Blocks.
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Ensuring that the food we eat is locally and sustainably grown is not always easy, especially in cities where crop-growing space is at a premium. Firms like Freight Farms and Cropbox, however, have a solution to this problem. They offer shipping containers that are kitted out as self-contained farms.
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The world's largest capacity container ship has set off on its maiden voyage. Measuring 1,312 ft in length and 192 ft wide – or the size of four soccer fields for those more familiar with that alternative unit of measurement – the CSCL Globe can carry 19,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) shipping containers.
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Shipping container-based buildings can suffer – indeed, usually do suffer – from significant insulation issues. But Johannesburg-based firm Architecture for a change (A4AC) recently built a community center and school in Malawi from shipping containers that aims to mitigate this with an open design. The firm also installed rainwater harvesting and solar power to allow the school to operate off-grid.
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Britain has a housing problem. According to homeless charity Crisis, the recession, deep cuts to the benefits system, and a comparative lack of new homes being built have all contributed to increased levels of homelessness over the last few years. With this in mind, QED Property recently collaborated with WCEC Architecture and the Brighton Housing Trust to build a new shipping container-based housing development in Brighton, UK, for people at risk of homelessness.
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Hong Kong and Australia-based company G-pod has unveiled a new shipping container home that it hopes will stand out from the sizable competition thanks to a novel expandable design that increases usable floor space significantly. The G-pod Dwell can also operate off-grid and optional extras include a rainwater collection unit and solar array.
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